Towards Improved Productivity

Companies, in their pursuit of manufacturing excellence, are constantly seeking measures to attain enhanced competitiveness. To this end, they work towards cost reduction and improved productivity, keep tabs on emerging technologies, bring in paradigm shifts in operations and resort to an integrated approach to innovation in order to achieve sustainable growth.

Manufacturing being an ever-evolving industry, manufacturers constantly find themselves grappling with issues they have never encountered before. Hence, through National Productivity Summit (NPS), that is held every year, ­IMTMA has taken up upon itself to aid the industry players zero in on the best practices to address the concerns they come across on their way to achieve enhanced productivity and improved competitiveness.

What’s in store at NPS 2018

The summit, each year, gathers the highest performing companies to illustrate their proven best strategies in the form of live case studies presentations, industry visits, success stories, and edifying key notes.

The summit this year will be graced by the presence of MM Murugappan, Executive Chairman, Murugappa Group, as its Chief Guest. As is the tradition of the event, it will be action-packed with the experts doling out their tested practices and experienced insight to the attendees for producing significant performance effects.

The way to ‘Drive Growth through Productivity’ will be shown by VN Vijayaraghavan, Managing Director, IM Gears, and Dattatri Salagame, Vice President & Head of Digital Business, Robert Bosch Engineering & Business Solutions, will offer his take on ‘IoT implementation in Indian manufacturing’. Last but not least, Abhay Dixit, Senior General Manager, Mahindra & Mahindra, Farm Equipment Sector, will list ‘Innovative Ways of Improving Paint Shop Productivity’.

Edifying plant tours

Plant tours are valuable. There is a slew of benefits one can reap by seeing a factory firsthand. The myriad observations one make while touring a plant and witnessing its best manufacturing practices and productivity improvements on their shop floors make for a rich learning experience which can be put into effective use by replicating them in one’s own operations.

Solutions abound

The highly dynamic manufacturing world is infamous for posing unprecedented problems. However, the successful companies in the field refuse to let these block their momentum. Having mastered the art of working around the problems, they are making their way to the summit to enlighten the audience with the aid of live case study presentations on their best productivity practices. A few of them include:

Hero Motocorp, Haridwar, would be sharing how it went about standardizing the Die design for different models, thereby eliminating set-up time. Low pressure Die Casting is a common process used in volume production in the automotive industry. Bajaj Auto, Akurdi, will share the types of challenges it faced in increasing the cavities when the volume rose and how it addressed them by intelligent design thinking.

While L&T MHPS Turbine Generators, Surat, will be elaborating on what enabled it to overcome capacity constraints in Blade manufacturing, leading to process optimization, L&T MHPS Boilers, Surat, will talk about its custom designed Turn Mill machine for machining critical components to reduce throughput time.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Foundry Division, Kandivali, will present its case study on a frugal automation in Vent Poking process for high pressure moulding line that led to enhanced quality output, lowered costs, and also safe and ergonomic work environment.

Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, Bangalore will reveal how it accomplished the remarkable feat of modifying 165 running machines in less than six months to develop components of diesel version vehicles on the manufacturing line of petrol version vehicles.

In TVS Motor Company, Hosur, frame welding of motor cycles was a totally manual process due to its complexity, distortion and heat affected zones. The company will share how it made it possible to shift to a fully automated 100 percent robotic one in its case study.

The summit, through the IMTMA - ACE MICROMATIC Productivity Championship Awards 2018, will reward outstanding efforts from the shortlisted case studies of companies that have excelled in achieving superior performance. Cash awards worth `10 lakh will be presented to the winners.

A must-attend affair

With industry experts shedding light on the practices they execute in their presentations and case studies, NPS 2018 promises to be an ideal learning ground. And while the interactive sessions and networking will usher in a fresh perspective, plant tours to the renowned companies will help gain an insight into their effective shop floor practices.

Hence, CEOs, top management executives, senior executives, engineers, R&D specialists and industry consultants from manufacturing industries from Automotive, Auto components, Consumer durables, Machine tool, Tool rooms, Aerospace, Defence, Railway units, PSUs, General engineering and other discrete manufacturing industries should participate in the event and make the most of the takeaways.